Former MEP Sharon Bowles has strongly defended her decision to join the board of the London Stock Exchange Group after being accused by another leading European politician of "selling her good reputation" by taking on the role so soon after leaving Parliament.

Bowles, who chaired the European Parliament's influential Economics and Monetary Affairs Committee until May this year, told Financial News this morning that it was "gobsmacking" to suggest her appointment to the LSE was inappropriate.

She was responding to remarks made by Sven Giegold, a Green Party MEP, who accused Bowles in a statement of "swapping sides" – a decision he described as "scandalous". In an emailed statement, seen by Financial News, Giegold wrote: "As [Econ] committee chair, she had exceptional influence and was well-respected. It is bitter to see how she is selling her good reputation to the LSE."

The pair had briefly traded blows on the issue on Twitter last week. But in his statement Giegold added Bowles was "transforming knowledge, which she has acquired during her public political mandate into private income for herself to the benefit of a private company. She does not only disrepute herself, but also the EU."

However, Bowles told Financial News that she could not "think of anything that is more the right place to be than being an independent non-executive director", adding that political expertise in business helps to foster good behaviour and understand the direction of travel of political thinking.

She said: "Are we saying that we don’t want a relationship that can be positive between industry and politicians? If you look at any annual report of any financial company at the moment, they will say regulatory change is one of their biggest risks and keeping in line with it is one of their biggest objectives. I think therefore that having people on the board...to make sure there aren’t failures is quite an important role. I think this is the way UK regulators see it too."

Bowles admitted that "ideally, I would not have joined the LSE as quickly as I did", but said the appointment was accelerated so she could join ahead of the exchange's landmark $2.7 billion to acquire US index provider Russell Investments.

Of her decision, she said: "I am comfortable with it and my standards are very high."

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Bowles, a former patent lawyer, served as chair of the Econ committee from 2009 until 2014, before stepping down from the role in May following the EU elections. As chair, she was at the heart of a number of post-crisis financial industry reforms, including the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II, the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, and rules on Packaged Retail Investment Products.

One of her last tasks was to steer the European Parliament’s work on financial benchmark reforms that were initiated in the wake of the Libor scandal. However, she was unable to complete Econ’s work on the rules because of disagreements between some European political parties.

It was announced last month that she was to join the LSE as a non-executive director with immediate effect. Much of Mifid II will directly impact exchange groups including the LSE; in particular proposed caps on dark pool trading, rules on high-frequency trading, and changes to market data charges. The LSE also owns benchmark provider FTSE, which will be affected by the benchmark reforms once they are completed.

Giegold wrote in his email that "cooling-off periods between a public position or mandate and a job for powerful private interests and corporations, are urgently needed". He questioned whether Bowles, who had been a member of the European Parliament for about 10 years, should still be entitled to receive her MEP's salary for 10 additional months.

But Bowles said she would not abstain from taking the allowance: "It is part of a contract. That is what I signed up to. I don’t see why one should change one’s contract."